The Still Hour cover

The Still Hour

Ellis Wren

Retelling en 10438 words First published 2026 United States TalesReborn

At seven, Cal Pryor steals a pie and a sawblade for a man who crawled out of a culvert in West Virginia coal country, and the man repays him the only way he has: by taking the blame out loud, before the hollow. Years later an anonymous benefactor pays to turn the boy into a gentleman in New York, and Cal, who spent Sundays in a shuttered mansion called Stillhour watching a jilted heiress keep one stopped hour of her life, is sure he knows who is paying. He is wrong about almost everything. The truth comes from the last place he would look, and asks the question he has carried since he was seven: what does a gift cost the person who takes it.

Adapted from Charles Dickens's novel Great Expectations (1861). Published by TalesReborn.

Table of Contents

  1. 001 The Culvert 1045 words
  2. 002 The Pie 786 words
  3. 003 Stillhour 1064 words
  4. 004 The Blade 1165 words
  5. 005 The Unearned 1075 words
  6. 006 The City, and What It Cost Me 638 words
  7. 007 The Man from the Weeds 694 words
  8. 008 The Hour 1393 words
  9. 009 The Water 861 words
  10. 010 The Still Hour 1717 words